Matt Canavan attacks mining contractor Aurecon for severing ties with Adani
Matt Canavan says Aurecon was “weak as piss” for cutting ties with Adani in wake of activist attacks.
Resources Minister Matt Canavan will today lash engineering and mining contractor Aurecon for being “weak as piss” after it severed ties with the Adani coal mining site after being targeted by anti-coal activists.
Senator Canavan is due to speak at the Global Maintenance Upper Spencer Gulf conference in the South Australian town of Port Pirie today, where he will call out members of the mining industry for not “standing up to the bullies and cowards” in the green movement.
It comes as the Indian mining giant said it feared protest action had swayed Aurecon’s decision and would encourage other contractors to follow suit.
Aurecon has provided engineering, procurement and construction management services for Adani’s Abbot Point coal port since 2005 and was involved in the terminal’s original development in 1981.
In a statement last night, Aurecon said it would cease working with Adani when its current contact expired in “six to nine months”.
“As part of this decision the firm has also ruled out working on any other Adani group of companies’ projects,” it said.
“Aurecon continues to pivot its 7500 people, and their capabilities, towards a future-ready business which includes aligning to its sustainability commitments and ongoing digital transformation.”
“Aurecon, is withdrawing services from Adani in response to pressure from green activist groups,” Senator Canavan will say. “They are not getting out of coal.”
“Aurecon aren’t making the decision because they are concerned about the environment, they are doing it because they are letting a few bullies who blockade their office dictate what they do,” he will say. “Basically they are a bunch of bedwetters and I don’t know how anyone who works for Aurecon can hold their head up high with any kind of pride after such a weak-willed decision.”
Senator Canavan will describe the decision as an insult to the working people of Australia and the growing needs of Australia.
“The Australian people clearly voted to support Adani at the federal election especially in regional Queensland,” he will say. “We want jobs in regional Australia and we don’t have much respect for businesses and political parties who seem more interested in meeting the interests of a few privileged greenies rather than the vast bulk of Australians who just want a job.’’
